Suspension of Belief
by TheRaggedEdge
Summary: Set a couple of months after the events of Turn, Turn, Turn. What would you do if you suddenly came face to face with the person who'd betrayed you and your team? Skye is about to find out.


**Hi everyone – just a quick note: Generally I've resolved only to write pieces I think would actually happen in the show or between the characters as they're represented in the show. Although I am a big fan of Grant Ward, his part in the team, and the potential of his relationship with Skye, I have a feeling that he may actually be as evil as the show's creators now seem to want us to believe. I'm on my way to accepting that this may be inevitable, but before I do that, here's what I would hope to happen on the off chance he isn't as evil as he seemed at the end of Turn, Turn, Turn. Please enjoy and keep in mind this does contain spoilers for both the aforementioned episode and Captain America: The Winter Soldier.**

* * *

Skye could feel her heart pounding, slamming against the walls of her chest as she darted up the stairs of the ACCESS building. She needed to get to the twenty-third floor. She needed to attain any and all information she could possibly get on other agencies that could determine whether they, too, had been infiltrated by Hydra. The FBI, the CIA, the NSA, and many, many more that the average American would never know existed.

She needed to get to the twenty-third floor. And step by step, she climbed. Fifteenth floor, she spied the words on the door as she darted past it and towards the next set of stairs.

The sound of a door crashing open interrupted the steady rhythm she'd been in. Stopping in her tracks, Skye listened, taking only a split second to hear the sound of feet descending the stairs towards her, only a floor or two up.

She turned and descended the stairs the way she'd come. "I'm not alone here," she said as calmly as possible, knowing that her team on the other end of the communication line would hear her.

"Skye get out of there," Coulson's panicked voice was unexpectedly soothing. But her resolve was strong.

"Not without getting our info." Skye slammed into the door of the thirteenth floor and raced down the hall. She'd just rounded the corner before she heard the same door open behind her.

Faster.

With every ounce of strength she had in her, she ran. But how far could she run? These corridors were only so long. She needed to hide.

For a brief moment, she wished her magical 084 powers would suddenly reveal themselves, making her invisible, or super speedy, or… something. Something that would mean she wouldn't have to turn and try to fight whoever or whatever was chasing her.

She'd been training hard. She didn't need an SO for that. In fact, she'd been trying even harder since he'd left, determined to show the world, to show herself, to show Ward that she didn't need him. She was a S.H.I.E.L.D agent with or without an SO. With or without the agency to even be an agent for.

But the fact remained, there was only so far she could run. She hesitated only a moment before skidding to a halt and reaching for the handle of the door to her right.

Locked.

She ran several feet further and checked the next. Locked.

Continuing further down, she realized that was it. She couldn't run further. She'd reached a dead end. A dead end with one door. With determination of steel, she threw herself into it at full speed, expecting to either bounce back off it or, with any luck, crash through it. Instead, it swung open and she felt herself rolling to the ground and slamming against a wall. She heard the door close behind her and forced herself upright.

Trying her best reorient herself and regain her balance, she began to stand. But her movement was halted when a large hand covered her mouth and pulled her back into the corner of the room.

"Don't move," a voice whispered sharply.

But Skye's instincts screamed at her to do the opposite, until a familiar sound stopped her.

The click of a gun.

She started to cry out, but the hand tightened around her mouth.

"Shhh!"

"Skye?" She heard Coulson in her earpiece. "What's happening?"

The sound of footsteps approached the door and she knew this was it for her. Either the person holding a gun to her head would kill her, or the people chasing her would. It didn't even matter which now.

She could feel the man's breath against her hair, his hand firmly pressed against her mouth. She felt the room spin and thought she might have fallen to the ground if not for the man holding her up.

She heard the sound of the door knob rattling. Whoever shut the door behind her must have locked it. Mumbled voices. And then the footsteps faded away.

They were gone.

She felt the hand release her mouth and her legs gave way beneath her, sending her to her knees on the floor. Slowly, she lifted her hands in the air as her eyes adjusted in the darkness of what, she assumed, was someone's office.

She looked up at the gun pointed at her head, then focused past it and at the man who held it.

His eyes widened and mouth parted. "Skye?"

She felt her heart stop. She felt her fists clench. She felt her jaw tense. But she refused to speak. Not to him. Ward.

In a matter of seconds, he put his gun to the ground and knelt to her, brushing her hair back with one hand and steadying her with the other.

"Are you okay? Are you hurt?" He whispered

She forced herself to straighten, ignoring the pain in her shoulder. She shoved him away with both hands and stood to her feet, whipping her gun from its holster and pointing it straight at him.

"Ward's there," she heard Fitz say in realization.

Ward lifted his hands to the air. "Whoa. Okay." He took a step back. "Okay, I know you really want to shoot me right now, but you have no idea how good it is to see you again."

Skye blinked. She wasn't expecting that.

"I can't believe you're alive," he said, smiling softly.

"Shut up, Ward," she snapped through her teeth.

"I honestly thought they'd – I mean, Garrett wanted you – well, he wanted to—"

"I said shut up!" She tightened her grip on the gun, finger hovering over the trigger.

He took a step toward her, and she felt herself take one back. "Skye, please, can we just talk?"

"It's too late for that, Ward."

"Hey – keep your voice down." He took another step toward her, but she felt the wall at her back, and knew she couldn't step backward again.

The good news was if Ward wanted her dead, he would have killed her already. He'd have that gun out of her hand in an instant. Didn't matter how hard she'd been training in the last three months.

"The rest of the team? Are they okay?"

Skye narrowed her eyes at him, refusing to let his deception work on her again. "They're not your team."

"Can they hear me?"

Skye knew they could, and she supposed the look on her face betrayed her because he continued speaking as if he already knew the answer.

"Skye, you have to know this isn't what it looks like."

"Says the man who just held a gun to my head!"

"Look who's holding the gun now," he gestured towards her.

She lowered the gun. Not because she trusted him. Not because she didn't want to shoot him. Only because she knew it was pointless. She wasn't physically capable of killing Ward. He was too good.

"Skye, we need to—"

"_We_ are not doing anything. Just shut up and let me think." She moved toward the desk, but she felt the world tip and her head spin. Strong arms grasped hers and she felt his hand on her waist.

"You hit your head, Skye. You need to sit."

Again she pushed him away. She leaned heavily on the desk as she reached it.

"Could you turn the comms off for just a moment, Skye."

She scowled at him. "I think you trained me better than that, Ward."

"I need to talk to you."

"Yeah. Right. Of course you do. Without my team hearing."

"Preferably," he conceded.

"Don't listen to him. Don't you turn us off."

"I won't," she responded to Coulson.

"I don't have much time," Ward pleaded. "If I don't get back out there soon, they'll start asking questions."

Skye raised her gun again. "You think I'd let you leave?"

"You and I both know that if I wanted to leave, you couldn't stop me. So put the gun down and hear me out."

Once more, she lowered the gun, knowing he was right and very much resenting him for it. He stood staring at her. He paced to his left and then back again. Then more staring.

"I'm waiting," she said impatiently.

"This isn't easy for me." His voice cracked as he said it.

"Oh, well that makes me feel a whole lot better. You know – you gained our trust, manipulated us, lied to us and betrayed us. Had me shot."

"That wasn't me."

"Had Coulson tortured," she continued without pause. "Not to mention Mike—"

"That wasn't me!" He almost yelled. "Skye, that's not me."

"Oh, it's not? Then who are you, Ward? Because we have spent so long trying to figure it out."

"Can you please turn the comms off, just for a moment."

"No," Coulson warned her.

"Not a chance," she responded.

"Fine." He approached her swiftly, and she slid further back on the desk in fear. He caught her arm before she could lift the gun and removed it from her hands, sliding it across to the other side of the desk. Then he held her hands in his. "Skye, in the closet. At the Hub. When I—when you—" he paused to find his words. "When I said I needed to protect you, I wasn't lying. When I told you I wanted to take you out, that I wanted to talk and to open up to you. That was me. The man you kissed – that was me."

Skye heard a gasp on the other end and assumed it came from Simmons.

"I don't know how I can get you to believe—"

"Alright, Ward, so what happened to that man when he shot Victoria Hand and those agents? The man who had every opportunity in the world to tell us the truth and continued to live as a traitor? The man who came onto our plane and pretended he was still one of us, only to turn on us and hold a gun to Simmons' head when he realized we knew about him? Why don't you tell me where he is, Ward? 'Cause he and I need to have words."

"You don't understand."

"Then help me."

"You couldn't understand!" He released her hands and took several steps back, clearly angry, although angry at whom, she did not know. "Hydra is all I've known! You've heard of Bucky Barnes?"

"Yes. He died in—"

Ward shook his head. "No, he didn't. Hydra found him and injected him with a similar serum to the one used on Steve Rogers. They trained him. Brainwashed him. And now he's one of us—" he caught himself. "One of them."

"How is that possible?"

"I don't know. But what I'm trying to tell you is that Hydra can be very convincing. If they can turn a heroic American soldier into one of theirs, they can sure as hell train a teenaged kid who just lost his brother and was desperate for something, anything to live for."

She stood from the desk and paced several steps, keeping an eye on Ward in her peripherals. Maybe it was the tumble she'd taken earlier, or maybe it was all this information she'd had to take in, but the dizziness swept over her again and she took a seat on the desk chair.

"Skye, you might have a concussion. You need to stay—"

"Shut up, Ward."

He breathed a loud laugh. "Not going to happen, sweetheart. I didn't spend all this time trying to protect you to have you die from crashing through a door."

She glanced up at him, annoyance now at the forefront of her emotions. At least annoyance was better than fear. "I won't die of a concussion."

He smiled and shook his head, then pulled another chair over and sat facing her, their knees touching. The kind of proximity she would have craved with him before.

She took a deep breath and forced herself to look him in the eyes. "Why'd you join our team?"

He look down, shame written all over his face. "I needed to find out what happened to Coulson when he died."

The words stung. She'd assumed as much. But hearing him say it – she felt a deep ache in her chest.

"Why did you become my SO?"

"See, that one I can't explain. I knew it was strategic. To find a way to connect with you and gain your trust. Besides, you were new to S.H.I.E.L.D and Garrett said I might be able to train you like he trained me."

"So you wanted to turn me into a Hydra agent?" She let her disgust show on her face.

"Please hear me out." He squeezed her knee softly. "Those reasons were strategic. The ones I knew would help me accomplish my goal. But at the same time, the guy that I was pretending to be – he started to show through the cracks. He wanted to help you become a better agent because he saw potential in you. Believed in you. And somewhere along the line, those two guys mixed – the man that I was – the Hydra agent, and the man I wanted to be – the S.H.I.E.L.D agent. Your SO. A friend to our team. And so, somewhere along the line I had to make a decision."

"I think you made your decision when you chose to kill Hand and not put the clairvoyant in the fridge."

"He's not the clairvoyant. He wants everyone to believe he is. Even me. But he's a pawn like the rest of us. The clairvoyant is bigger than just one man."

"What do you mean?"

Ward stood and started towards the door. "I don't have time to explain."

Skye stood with him and grabbed his arm, halting his movement. "Ward, you have to." Tears welled up in her eyes and threatened to spill over. "You have to."

He turned back towards her, and she could have sworn there was pain in his eyes. Sympathy for her. "I made a decision at some point on that Bus that I would change. I'd stop Garret or I'd die trying. Because there was a point on that Bus when Hydra suddenly wasn't the most important thing. You were."

"Grant—"

"I can't explain it. But you changed me, Skye. So did the others. And I have to—I have to protect you. If I left Hydra, they'd kill me, they'd kill you, the team, they wouldn't stop."

His jaw was set and his muscles tense, but his eyes were soft. She could see the glassiness of the tears in his eyes. And a small part of her desperately wanted to believe him.

"I'm doing everything I can. No matter how much they've manipulated me and brainwashed me over the years – somehow what I feel for you, it wins over that. My need to protect you is so much more powerful than anything they've taught me to believe in. And I can't do that from the Bus. I can't protect you when I'm standing right next to you. I have to be next to the people who want you dead."

"Why do they want me dead?"

He glanced at the door, then at his watch, then looked back to her. "Because they know what you are."

That wasn't possible. How could they know? She didn't even know!

"What am I?"

"I don't know. I honestly don't. They won't tell me." He looked at his watch again. "Skye, I have to go."

He reached for her hand and placed a memory stick in it. "The information you came for is on there. I know you don't trust me so get Fitz to analyze it before you open it. You have to get out of here. Please stay safe, Skye. Please."

He turned and marched for the door.

"Ward!" She walked over to him and stood so close she could feel his breath on her face. "Please come back to us."

She reached both arms around his neck and pulled him closer, burying her face in his neck. He wrapped his arms tightly around her waist and for a moment, she leaned all her weight on him, letting him hold her up. He released her slowly and she could see a slight smile on his lips and tears glisten in his eyes. "I'll do everything I can."

"Go."

"Skye, are you sure about this?" Coulson's voice reached her ears and reminded her that letting Ward go wasn't a choice she could make alone.

But he'd already gone. Slipped outside with a final squeeze of her hand.

Her emotions overwhelmed her and she began to cry, trying in vain to hold it together.

"Come home, Skye," Coulson's voice was soft and pleading. "You've done well."

When Skye reentered the new Bus an hour later, she did so with a fresh determination. She would set Ward free from Hydra. Whether he wanted it or not. Whether he had been honest with her or not. She would set him free. Whatever it took.


End file.
